Fallen

Fallen

“If the theory is correct that feeling is not located in the head, that we sentiently experience a window, a cloud, a tree not in our brains but rather in the place where we see it, then we are, in looking at our beloved, too, outside ourselves.”
Walter Benjamin, Einbahnstraße, 1928

Zohra Opoku’s and Emeka Alams’ first collaborative installation presents a figure resembling a fragmented angel. The work is assembled from remnant textiles gathered in Lagos, Nigeria and combined with objects and a black banner carrying abstract symbols. The installation poses questions that run like threads through the exhibition as a whole: Is “future” necessarily a fragment, a new combination of existing material, rather than a solid vision or a linear story? Looking at the installation, Walter Benjamin’s famous “Angel of History” comes to mind: staring at the past, unable to interact, heal or alter it, the angel is pushed towards the future. There are many other possible perspectives on futures as the fragmented angel here suggests, looking to all directions, simultaneously.